Cascade, 2025
2 ceramic panels on the historic facade of The Gaumont,
King's Road, London. Consisting of 144 hand-glazed tiles with sculpted relief, each panel is 609 × 288 cm
Commissioned by Cadogan, curated by Futurecity.
Cascade, 2025. 2 ceramic panels on the historic facade of The Gaumont, King's Road, London. Consisting of 144 hand-glazed tiles with sculpted relief, each panel is 609 x 288 cm. Commissioned by Cadogan, curated by Futurecity. Photography © Altay Dogahan.
Cascade, 2025. 2 ceramic panels on the historic facade of The Gaumont, King's Road, London. Consisting of 144 hand-glazed tiles with sculpted relief, each panel is 609 x 288 cm. Commissioned by Cadogan, curated by Futurecity. Photography © Altay Dogahan.
Shezad Dawood’s Cascade is a permanent public art commission for The Gaumont on the King’s Road, London. The artwork takes the form of an expansive ceramic diptych, depicting a full moon passing through the night sky, partially inspired by James Abbott McNeil Whistler’s painting Nocturne in Black and Gold, which portrays a view of fireworks falling from the sky by the Thames in Chelsea.
Cascade pays homage to the heritage and memory of the site’s origins as the Gaumont Palace Theatre, which distributed early cinematic pioneer George Méliès’s classic A Trip to the Moon, and reflects Dawood’s fascination with storytelling, cinema and time travel. Cascade comprises of two vertical panels, each measuring 609 x 288 cm and made of 144 hand-glazed tiles and occupies the historic panelling which listed the films on show and the screen stars associated with them.
The ceramic moons depicted in each panel appear to move through the sky by virtue of the restored roundels above the entrance of the building. The roundels are dedicated to early British cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene and the masks of Comedy & Tragedy. Both moons are accompanied by abstracted bursts of fireworks all sculpted in relief.
Thinking of the role of day for night shooting in cinema, where aperture and shutter speed were adjusted in camera to shoot night-time scenes by day, and the diurnal passage of time, the relief elements act as a quasi-sundial as the sun moves overhead and the shadows dance, creating a kinetic movement to the piece during sunlight. The work is then lit to dramatic effect by night.
Gothic horror novelists Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, both of whom lived locally, the role of the moon in their masterpieces Dracula and Frankenstein, and the impact their haunting imagery had on early cinema, informed Dawood’s work.
Equally important as inspirations and influences to Dawood’s work were characters as varied as Charles II, whom the King’s Road is named after, and iconic British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and her boutique Sex, which was located on the King’s Road – and whose ubiquitous logo playfully appropriated Charles’ sceptre and orb. The geometric elements of Mary Quant’s designs, the bold and unique colour palette of the Chelsea Pottery, and the abstract pattern and movement of experimental film pioneer Len Lye round off Dawood’s influences for Cascade.
Shezad Dawood was selected and commissioned to create the artwork by a cultural panel brought together by Cadogan and the cultural placemaking agency Futurecity, including members of the Chelsea Arts Club, the V&A and the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Cascade, 2025. 2 ceramic panels on the historic facade of The Gaumont, King's Road, London. Consisting of 144 hand-glazed tiles with sculpted relief, each panel is 609 x 288 cm. Commissioned by Cadogan, curated by Futurecity. Photography © Altay Dogahan.